Background

The Office Illness Project in northern Sweden, comprising both a screening questionnaire study of 4943 office workers and a case-referent study of facial skin symptoms in 163 subjects was recently completed.

Previously published results from the survey showed that female gender, asthma/rhinitis, high psychosocial work load, visual display terminal (VDT) and paperwork were related to an increased prevalence of facial skin symptoms.

Methods

The case-referent study presented in this paper used data from the questionnaire supplemented by information from a clinical examination, a survey of psychosocial factors at work, building data and VDT-related factors from inspection and measurements taken at the work site.

Results

Psychosocial conditions and exposure to electromagnetic fields or conditions associated with such factors were related to an increased occurrence of skin symptoms.

Conclusions

The results suggest that skin symptoms reported by VDT users have a multifactorial background.